1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an autonomous behavior expression system in a robot for toys, games, civil lives and industries and a speech interactive system; and to a user recognition growth system applicable to a robot for toys, games, civil lives and industries and various types of interactive machinery for navigation tools, vending machines, and automatic receiving apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
These days, a pet type of robot, which, through learning process, becomes tame to a user and can express his feelings with characteristic movements to communicate with the user, has been commercialized. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 11-58,274 discloses a robot that can learn predetermined postures and motions.
However, according to the prior art, users have to intentionally teach a robot some behaviors to learn through the training of teaching play back, which lacks natural interaction. Accordingly, because a pet type of robot whose primary object is to interact is not appealing, users soon lose interest in the robot. There can be provided a system where the movements of a user are recognized and stored as a gesture to be expressed as autonomous behaviors by a robot, through which interaction between a robot and a user is produced. The system detects the position and posture of the user by image processing and extracts the position of, for example, both his hands. Doing this, considering lightness and environment, requires large calculation load, which cheap microprocessors cannot execute.
In addition, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 11-58,274 discloses a robot that, through learning, can change his character or tendency, depending on his user""s attitudes which train the robot to be inclined to bark when the robot barks and the user praises the barking and to be inclined to obedient when, on the contrary, the user becomes angry.
Robots in the prior art, however, do no have the ability to recognize user""s face and voice. In the field of security technology, it is known that users can be identified from various kinds of information. Even if the security technology is applied to robots, it is only supposed to know whether or not a person in question is a lawful user, which does not generate interest on the part of the user, because robots are expected to bring about interaction with the user.
Moreover, robots in the prior art only express artificial feelings by their actions through visual and auditory sense toward users. When a user touches the robot or holds its hand, the robot does not directly respond to the touched or held portions. Since the robot is not as interactive as it should be expected to be, there is a possibility that the user loses interest in the robot.
To enhance intimacy between machinery and a user, there are proposed a machine operation system in which a personalized artificial agent appears on a screen and talks to a user, and a system in which a robot can communicate with a user. The systems generate artificial feelings and change characters and behaviors, depending on user""s operation and attitude, to express the results. However, in reality, expressions on the screen, synthesized voices, or behavioral patterns are only changed. This is not sufficient for good communication from the user""s point of view, which produces the possibility that the user loses interest in the robot.
The invention solves the first problem in the prior art. One object of one embodiment in accordance with the invention is to provide an autonomous behavior expression system where intimacy between a user and a robot can be enhanced and the robot can become attractive to the user, and to provide a speech interactive system where an interactive conversation or deed with a user can be made.
One aspect of the invention comprises a user information input structure that inputs user information, a memory structure that stores user""s bearing information as robot""s bearing pattern, and a regenerating structure that regenerates the pattern based on the information input to the user information input structure.
When a user plays with a robot by moving robot""s hand upward and downward, the user""s movements are stored. Since the robot expresses the stored movements as his autonomous behaviors, interaction with the user can be produced. When the user wears or holds a specific thing, it can be detected as a hand or foot, which can easily recognize and store the user""s movements.
Information such as the bearing and voice of the user and the operation by the user is stored in the system. Triggered by the time when the user makes specific instructions or when the internal state of the system comes to a predetermined state, behaviors based on the stored information such as the bearing are expressed.
The invention solves the second problem. One object of another embodiment of the invention is to provide a user recognition growth system where a robot gradually improves its recognition toward the user and, as a result, the behaviors of the robot gradually change.
Another aspect of the invention comprises a behavior selection and determination structure for selecting and determining behaviors based on user information, a user information recognition structure for recognizing a user, a memory structure for storing recognized user information, a calculation structure for comparing the recognized user information with stored user information to calculate user recognition, and a compensation structure for compensating a selection and determination method of the behavior selection and determination structure according to the calculated user recognition.
Characteristic information about a new user recognized is stored in the system. The information obtained when the user is seen and the stored information are compared for correspondence. Depending on the degree of the correspondence, a method of selecting actions to take and the actions selected are compensated, and at the same time, new information about the user is obtained, by which recognition of the user is gradually improved to give the user an impression that the robot gets tamed to the user.
The invention solves the third problem in the prior art. One object of still another embodiment of the invention is to provide a tactile expression system in a robot which can realize tactile interaction between the user and the robot.
Still another aspect of the invention comprises an actuator for driving a robot, a detection structure for detecting user information and environment information, and a feelings generation structure for generating artificial feelings for a robot based on the detecting user and environment information, a behavior determination structure for determining behaviors by the robot based on the generated artificial feelings, wherein the behavior determination structure controls the actuator so that a resistance acted on the robot may be changed on tactile information the user has applied to the robot.
In response to tactile information the user gave to the system when the user touched or held, external state (for example, environment information) and internal state of the system (for example, artificial feelings), the actuator is controlled so that the resistance when the user has touched and operated the system may be changed.
For purposes of summarizing the invention and the advantages achieved over the prior art, certain objects and advantages of the invention have been described above. Of course, it is to be understood that not necessarily all such objects or advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, for example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other objects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.
Further aspects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments which follow.